Wednesday, June 8, 2016

While composing my post on Stephanie Rowe I discovered something that left me confused and curious. Initially I was trying to find out what arrests Stephanie's two mug shots were from. I am assuming one of them is from the Mendocino arrest but I was unclear where the other mug shot was from.

I consulted Deemer's List of Family members and associates. This list was compiled by Lt. Earl Deemer in the days leading up to the arrests for the TLB murders. Notable on the list is an entry for Charles Montgomery who we know was an alias that was used by Tex Watson. This pretty much dates when Deemer created the list as it wasn't until late November that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office finally figured out Tex's true name and put out a warrant for his arrest.

Deemer's List as well as some of the police reports can be viewed at Michael Channel's website. You will need to refer to the list as well as two of the police reports in order to follow along with this post. The reports start about 3/4 of the way down the page.

What I started looking at specifically are the LASO#'s on Deemer's List. Not everyone has an LASO#. What I noticed is that the numbers seem to correspond to various specific arrests. There are two sets of three numbers, the first three numbers in the set seem to reference a specific arrest and the last three numbers are a particular person.

If you looks at the Summit Trail arrest report (labeled as LASD Arrest Report May 2, 1968 at Channel's website) all of the people booked have 702 XXX as a booking number. You can go back to Deemer's List and find that Louis Covell, Sandra Collins, Bruce Van Hall, Diane Lake, Robert Murray and Paul Watkins all have an LASO# that begins with 702.

While Manson and Bruce Davis were also arrested on Summit Trail and were given 702 XXX booking numbers on the arrest report they have lower LASO#s on Deemer's List which leads me to think that the LASO# assigned to them by Deemer was from an earlier arrest by the LASO. As a matter of fact I checked Charles Manson's rap sheet and see that the LASO# 386 798 on Deemer's List was from a 1955 arrest with a Dyer Act charge. That same number is also on the rap sheet for arrests in 1957, 1959 and 1960. However later arrests on Charlie's rap sheet, in 1968 and 1969 do not reference that number.

What is curious about the Summit Trail arrest is that Paul Watkins was given LASO# 702 040 on Deemer's List but he does not appear on the arrest report. Also, whoever was LASO# 702 041 does not appear on Deemer's List or the Summit Trail arrest report. The booking numbers on the arrest report begin with 702 042. It cannot be a coincidence that Watkins, out of the blue was assigned LASO# 702 040 by Deemer. And who is the missing person????

When I got to the Spahn Ranch Raid arrest report of August 16, 1969 I saw that all of those arrested were given booking numbers beginning with 892 XXX with the exception of those who might have been arrested previous by LASO the LASO#s pretty well match up between the people listed on the arrest report and on Deemer's list.

The newspaper article on the arrest differs somewhat from what is written in the arrest report as far as naming the arrested. Also, the newspaper says there were seven juveniles taken into custody but the arrest report lists five children plus one juvenile, Herbert Townsend Jr., who was charged.

So, the above leads to my original quest, what was Stephanie Rowe's other arrest? When I looked up Stephanie on Deemer's List I saw that she had LASO# 850 544.

What I noticed was that there were a number of people who had an LASO# beginning with 850 XXX. Stephanie Rowe, Sherry Cooper, Madaline Cottage, William Feeny, Barbara Hoyt, David Lipsett, Nancy Pitman, Barbara Rosenberg, Catherine Share and Leslie Van Houten.

Stephanie must have been arrested along with nine other people, possibly more considering that Deemer was known to use older booking numbers for some people. But when was the arrest made and what was it for? I am absolutely clueless.

Barbara Hoyt was one of those arrested and the date I have for her hooking up with the Family was April 1, 1969. That gives us a date to begin with, it couldn't have been before then.

I even emailed Grim to ask if he was aware of a group arrest before the Spahn Ranch Raid of August 16, 1969. He did not know of one.

One of the 10 names stands out to me, William Feeny. He's not particularly well known and I wasn't aware that he ever went down to Southern California much less was arrested with a bunch of Family members in LA . The last name is actually spelled Feeney and he is the person who was the official renter of the 636 Cole St address that Manson was associated with in San Francisco. Feeney was also the brother of Patricia Friedman who along with her husband Irwin "Partee" Friedman raised Sandra Good's son Ivan.

So, what gives? How can there be another large arrest of Family members and no one to my knowledge has ever talked about it? There do not seem to be any police reports with an 850 XXX booking number for those arrested. If you know something, give it up!!! I'd hate it if it turned out I've gone completely brain dead and just blanked this arrest from my mind........

The key impact of both crimes is that Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Felony Murder do not require the defendant to actually kill anyone or even be present when someone is murdered to be guilty of murder. That, of course, rather obviously is directed at Charles Manson.